Hi all,

Trying my luck again. I will not ask about the message on the card. "Greeting from Russian Poland" - A postcard meaning to characterize Polish Jews during the First World War whose territories were occupied by Russia.

The illustrator was F. Preiss and his name appears in the lapel of the person. On the inside it shows that he was also the publisher. Seems strange, no? The company he founded Preiss & Kassler don't seemed to have dealt with printing?

Any ideas?
Also can anyone work out what printing process was involved in this card?

Have a great weekend

Lawrence

I found some sites that identified this harsh antisemitic illustrator with the famous art nouveau ivory carver Ferdinand Preiß (sometimes incorrectly named as Fritz Preiß since he often only signed F. Preiß, I guess). Wikipedia describes his work as being "regarded as the pinnacle of Art Deco sculpture and greatly valued by modern collectors". So, frankly I first thought that this has little merit, since the name is not that very uncommon, and why should a famous artist descend to this level, with only a few postcards produced obviously after drawings he made at the Eastern front on World War I, and only this one being antisemitic, the others found on the web being quite unspectacular:

Link (https)

It does look like some simple soldier of some minor talent printed a few of his war memories to make a few bucks, doesn't it? I was pretty sure I'd find absolutely nothing else about this man, resident at some point at Weichselstraße 20 in Berlin.

But I was very wrong, it is indeed that same person. The proof is in the Berlin address book of 1916:

Link (https)

Here Ferdinand Preiß, resident at Weichselstraße 20, is indeeed identified with the ivory carver.

It is quite telling that he was issuing these cards apparently from his home address, not the company that bears his name and that of a co-owner. Possibly that other guy wanted nothing to do with this crap...

More about him (all without mention of the drawings or postcards):

German Wikipedia: Link (https)
English Wikipedia: Link (https)
Link (https)
Link (http)

Regards
cassander_thucelius

The handwritten text on the card is also wildly (and murderously) antisemitic, by the way, on the surface speaking about the louse, but of course implicating equivalence with the depicted Jewish man, as does the card itself:

"Wenn man 50 von dieser Sorte hat, muß man sich dann und wann mal jucken, oder man muß sie Ermorden was wohl noch wichtiger ist. Gruß an Peter, Magda und alle Bekannten"

"If you have 50 of this kind, you have to itch yourself now and then, or you have to murder them all, which is possibly even more important. Greetings to Peter, Magda and all acquaintances."

Is this text possibly written by the "artist" himself? We probably cannot know.

Regards
cassander_thucelius

Thanks for the answer. Any idea as to the printing method?

It is not one I am familiar with in German printing

Regards

Lawrence

Contrary to what I supposed above, that co-owner did indeed have his name on that card, too, in another edition. Here it says "Preiss & Kassler":

Link (https)

That is interesting. Two different editions!

Any idea of the printing process?